Research
What does your team actually think about AI?
The answer matters more than the technology itself.
“Leaders assume employees are excited about AI. They’re wrong. Executives believe their workforce is informed and enthusiastic, while most employees report confusion, anxiety, and limited involvement in key decisions.”
The Perception Gap
Leaders and employees are experiencing AI transformation very differently. This creates a Face the Truth challenge – not because leaders aren’t paying attention, but because honest conversations about anxiety and uncertainty don’t flow uphill easily, especially around technology that feels threatening to discuss.
This gap exists even in healthy organizations with strong leaders. Research on psychological safety shows that people are often reluctant to voice concerns about technology – it can feel like admitting incompetence or resistance to progress. The question isn’t whether you’re a good leader. It’s whether you’ve built the conditions where these conversations can happen.
76%
of executives believe employees are enthusiastic about AI
But only 31% of individual contributors report sharing that enthusiasm.
47%
of employees expect AI to transform 30%+ of their work within a year
Only 20% of executives share that expectation.
Leaders report high anxiety too
Research shows leaders are among the most anxious about technological change reshaping their own positions – even while projecting confidence to their teams. When everyone is performing confidence nobody actually feels, honest conversations about what’s coming become nearly impossible.
Why This Matters
When people are anxious about technology but don’t feel they can say so, they experience that anxiety alone. Work becomes harder, collaboration suffers, and the very adaptability organizations need gets undermined by unspoken fear.
The challenge isn’t mastering every new AI tool. It’s developing the capacity to see your organizational reality clearly – what’s actually happening with your team, not what you assume is happening. The leaders who navigate this well aren’t the ones with the best technology strategy. They’re the ones who’ve built environments where honest conversations can happen.
This is the foundation of The Shift That Sticks methodology: before you can define what matters or build systems, you have to face the truth about where you actually are.
One conversation to try this week: Ask someone on your team, “What’s one thing about AI or technology changes that feels unclear or uncertain right now?” Then listen without reassuring. The answer – or the hesitation before answering – tells you something about the conditions you’ve built.
We’re Working on This Too
The research points to a clear problem: organizations are adopting AI tools faster than they’re building the conditions for honest conversation about what those tools mean for the people using them.
We don’t have a finished answer. What we do have is a working approach, grounded in the same methodology, that we’re developing with practitioners who face these questions every day. If that’s you, we’d like you involved.
No sales pitch. We’re looking for local government leaders willing to share what they need and shape what gets built.
Coming Soon
The Shift Assessment
A 10-minute diagnostic that measures where your organization stands across the four practices – and where to focus next.
We’re looking for practitioners to beta test and help shape the final version.
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